The Dragons split the six-game series with first-place Whitecaps for their second series split. And while they were in position late in Sunday’s game to get that first series win before the beautiful, blue-sky day crumbled around them in the eighth inning, the outlook remains positive.
“Super excited to be here and to be able to play with these guys,” said second baseman and first baseman Peyton Stovall, who joined the team on April 15. “It was obviously a tough way to end the week, but overall I feel like we got better.”
Dragons manager Vince Harrison Jr. wants his players to learn to play baseball the right way and get away from relying on talent. Last year’s even younger team did that and won the second-half division title.
“It’s easy to look at the final score, but we did a lot of things, right,” he said. “We had some other opportunities, but as far as making strides, we still did that.”
The first downs of the day came in the first inning. Thirty-eight-year-old Wade Miley made his second rehab start from Tommy John surgery this week. He allowed a one-out home run to Seth Stephenson. Then with two outs he left the game. But Miley didn’t reinjure his rebuilt elbow. Instead he departed because of a lower body injury.
The biggest ups came in the fourth and fifth innings. With two outs, Victor Acosta hit his second double of the day and scored on Trey Faltine’s double to tie the score 1-1.
In the fifth, Logan Tanner led off with a walk and scored on Carlos Jorge’s triple. Leo Balcazar followed with a sacrifice fly to push the lead to 3-1.
Double plays and could-have-been double plays were the late-inning ups and downs for the Dragons.
After Jack Penney singled in a run to cut Dayton’s lead to 3-2, Acosta fielded a well-hit ground ball up the middle and turned the double play himself to end a potentially big inning.
The eighth inning did not start ideally for Dayton reliever Cody Adcock with a walk to lead-off man Max Clark. Stephenson put down a bunt about a foot in front of the plate. Catcher Logan Tanner pounced on the baseball and fired to second base to start a sure double play.
But neither second baseman Acosta or shortstop Balcazar covered second. The throw sailed into center field and the stage was set for a six-run inning.
“We had communicated prior to the pitch on who was covering, but then the play happened and we didn’t have anyone there, and that changed everything,” Harrison Jr. said.
The Dragons were still in double-play territory of getting out of the inning when Balcazar was interfered with fielding a ground ball. That created the first out and sent a runner, who had scored, back to third. But with runners at first and third with one out, the Whitecaps unloaded on Adcock.
A two-run double by Johnny Peck and and a two-run single by Andrew Jenkins broke the game open.
Infield and baserunning mistakes, getting away from the game plan in the batter’s box and walking lead off hitters will happen, especially in High A leagues.
“He’ll be the first one to to support you, and he’ll be the first person to teach you something that that maybe you could have done better,” Stovall said of Harrison Jr. “He’s a great coach. He wants to win. And I appreciate that from a coach.”
The Dragons get another chance for a first series win this coming week at Fort Wayne (10-11). The two teams split six games the previous week in Dayton.
NEXT GAME
What: Dayton at Fort Wayne
When: Tuesday, April 28, 6:35 p.m.
Radio: 980-AM
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